The Outside the Box Job
by D890
Summary: What happens to our team when they are faced with a team member who doesn't remember who they are? What happens when the team must then work a job where no one is doing what they know best? How will they handle these new assignments and how will they overcome their difficulties to ensure their injured team member knows that they are still a team and therefore a family?
1. Chapter 1

The Outside the Box Job

Chapter One

 _It's Been A Long Time_

 _Since I Wore This Rattlesnake Smile_

 _And A Lotta My Friends Haven't Seen it in Quite A While_

 _-Rattlesnake Smile by Christian Kane and Kane-_

Eliot kept his head down as he walked past the rent-a-cop on his way to the back stairs of the building. He knew the guy didn't have any experience working real security; if he did he sure wouldn't be here trying to look like he was a badass. Eliot hid a grin as he watched the guy through his peripheral vision; the man actually started whistling something that was off key while he strutted down the corridor. No, Eliot thought, this breed of wannabe badass always seemed to amaze him the most when they survived from one day to the next in this world of 'boring do nothing special' kind of thing.

The team was waiting for Eliot back at Lucille and he needed to hurry up; it was getting late. It was almost nine and they were meeting their client in an hour; then in the morning they were off to their next gig. Lately they seemed to have a never-ending string of clients needing their special kind of help. Yeah, he thought, sometimes the only good guys you get were the bad guys.

He'd just gotten Parker out of the building with the files they'd been hired to steal; the files that were stolen from their client Dr. Evanwood in the first place. These files contained every ounce of the doctor's life's work and the team was only securing what rightfully belonged to him.

Dr. Evanwood, Eliot thought with another grin. Now that guy was everything one would expect a nerdy professor to look like. Not too tall, a little thickening around his middle, going prematurely bald, and then there was the glasses. Eliot full on laughed when he thought about the guys glasses. They weren't just big and bulky looking and taped in the middle, but they were also a very brilliant shade of green. The guy thought the glasses made him look cool, but they just intensified his nerdiness. Yet in a way they were so him, and because of that Eliot had refrained from making any comments upon seeing the man for the first time.

The doctor was brilliant though, that much Eliot would concede, albeit reluctantly. He knew what he'd been talking about when he'd told them about what lay beneath one of the oldest buildings in the state and was just on the outer edge of Boston. He'd been working on this for most of his life and he had everything to support his deductions; and then his blueprints and all the files had been stolen. If Eliot had run into the guy during any other day, he'd have written the man off as a lunatic treasure hunter, but when the man revealed his photographic memory and Hardison had followed up on his research, things began to fall into place. Eliot realized that the man knew what he was talking about after reading up on the history of the building and everything Hardison had on the good doctor.

Eliot knew he was the real deal and he deserved to get credit for his discovery. It was almost like something right out of the movie, _National Treasure._ Boston was one of the oldest cities in the state, so it seemed logical to him that the founding fathers probably hid treasures all over; they were, after all committing treason against England and they knew they wouldn't be able to go back once they began. It just made sense they'd stow assets away just in case they were ever needed to help fight for their independence.

Eliot had never really thought about the assets part much, not until he'd talked with the doctor. He'd always had an interest in the USA's fight for freedom and independence, he was once a soldier; but after the line between doing what was right for the people and doing what protected the government became blurry, he'd done some backtracking of his own.

When what he was being told to do began to make him question who he was really protecting, he'd walked away. Eliot had never regretted his decision to leave, but he regretted some of the bad choices he'd made once he'd been on his own. Choices he didn't like to think about any more than he had to.

After he'd met Dr. Evanwood, he'd listened to the man and his theories. They made sense and Eliot realized that the man didn't want the treasure for himself, he wanted to give their country what was rightfully hers. He wanted to help the people by giving them more knowledge on what their country's original soldiers had fought for. He wanted the people to know what they had a right to know, and that had been the fact that not only were they fighting for their freedom, but they were fighting for their future.

But someone else didn't want the world to have the treasure. Someone had been following the man's research and just as the professor had been about to hire a team that would break ground once he'd secured the purchase of the building in question, his work had been stolen. It had taken Hardison a while, but he'd finally been able to trace the location of the plans back to this law firm and it had seemed an easy enough job to steal the documents back.

However, Eliot knew nothing was ever truly easy, so he was making a final sweep of the offices of Buckland and Hart at night dressed as a rental cop. He'd watched as Parker had gained careful entrance to the building through the air ducts and he'd kept all the rental cops in sight as she worked her magic on the safe. When her exit had been blocked by the unexpected appearance of a late-night maintenance crew, he'd managed to get her out of the building through the lesser used route at this time of night; the freight elevator shaft.

Now, Parker was safe in the van with the others and Eliot was rushing through this last check, so he could join them. He needed to be sure no one found out about the missing files until their client was safely out of the city with them. He also wanted to be sure he would be able to return in the future as he'd discovered something in the building that had interested him; and it was his secret as to what it was. Nothing dangerous really, but something that needed his attention.

He could hear the playful banter between Parker and Hardison through his constant earbud and scowled a little at the noise they were making. He hoped no one noticed all that noise if they happened to walk past Lucille. Nate had parked closer to the building than Eliot would have liked, because Hardison said it was easier for him to monitor them without being detected. He didn't understand the nerdy explanation Hardison gave, he just accepted it.

He'd never tell the man that he trusted him with his life when it came to his computer genius, so he'd just growled at him and turned away to head into the building. He may not understand everything about Hardison's level of technology, but he wasn't a total idiot either. How the hell did anyone think he'd survived his job as a retrieval expert without using these modern conveniences occasionally? Because it was Eliot's trademark to be underestimated, he would never let Hardison know that Eliot knew his way around a computer keyboard.

The part that still bothered him after all this time on this team was the fact that even though the marks were supposed to underestimate him, his team should have seen Eliot's other qualities; yet he felt they really didn't notice. No one had ever had asked him what other skills he possessed besides making them dinner and bustin' in a few heads. No, they just took for granted that Eliot would be there when they needed him to take the bad guys down. Sometimes it bothered him, but most times he just let it go.

"You guys need to shut up out there!" Eliot growled under his breath as he looked behind him to be sure the guard had continued down the hall. "Someone's gonna hear you and we don't need any unexpected company."

"Hey relax, man." Hardison said, and Eliot could hear him grinning as he spoke. "Lucille's insulated so no one's gonna hear anything. My baby's got it all, no worries."

Eliot grinned as he pictured the guy sitting at his computer monitors with a forever orange soda bottle within reach and Parker next to him eating some of his gummy frogs. He knew Sophie and Nate were there too, and they were probably watching the two younger team members like disapproving parents at their sugar induced antics. _What have I gotten myself_ _into with this group_? Sometimes they really tried his patience.

"Are you almost done, Eliot?" Sophie's soft cultured voice came to him through the earbud.

Eliot loved the sound of Sophie's voice; her real voice. It was soft like a fine southern woman's voice, but Sophie's held just enough of a deep refined tone to let people know she was anything, but soft. He'd learned early on how to read Sophie; even if it was her job to read people, Eliot had learned in his own career to know what to expect from people as well as most grifters.

Sophie needed to know how to handle a grift by knowing how to read the mark, but she'd have probably been shocked to discover that Eliot knew exactly who she was and what she meant with every inclination and tone she applied to her voice. It may have been _her_ job to read and understand their marks, but it was Eliot's job to read and understand people in general; and Eliot was good at his job. He wasn't being egotistical; he was just good at his job, period. He had to be to survive. Eliot had to be able to read people and his surroundings, so he could get in and out.

He didn't assume people were to be dismissed if they didn't appear to be a threat. He had to read people to know what was under the surface. Eliot had to know instantly who could be a threat later, not just at the moment. He knew how to read women, too. Eliot had been around the block a few times (okay, _a lot_ he thought with another grin), so he knew what a woman meant no matter what words came out of her mouth; and he knew right now Sophie was a little irked (her word, not his-he would have been pissed) with Nate and the hectic schedule he had them on lately.

Eliot also knew she was worried; something about this job had rubbed her wrong from the minute they'd taken it and he had to admit he'd also had some reservations. It had seemed simple enough, an easy in and out job, but he knew if something looked easy it probably wasn't. _Anyone could have done this job, so why them? Why had the doctor chosen them? How had he even found them?_

These were questions Eliot had been asking himself since they'd taken this job. He hadn't had time to discuss his reluctance with Sophie though, and he hoped when this was all over he could put those feelings away; but his unease continued to grow with each passing minute.

They'd gotten in easy enough and even though Eliot had to change Parker's escape route, she'd still gotten out with no problems. Now they were all safe in the van waiting on him and it looked like he'd be joining them soon. He hadn't run into any other guards and the stairs were just down the hall on his left; and that's when the realization hit him.

Eliot hadn't seen another guard. _Why hadn't he?_ He'd passed one every two or three minutes when he'd first entered the building an hour ago, and now - none? It wasn't time to change shifts and they were supposed to be on patrol always. Eliot had done all his homework and he had their schedule down pat. _So where were the other guards?_

He stopped dead in his tracks when he realized he was alone in the corridor. "Hardison, where are all the guards?" Eliot breathed; he had calculated the amount of time it would take him to reach the stairs and get down them and outside; and that included running into any guards.

"What? What do you mean? They're all where they're supposed to be-" Suddenly Hardison's voice cut off. "Umm, Eliot?"

Eliot knew he wasn't going to like this the minute he heard Hardison's voice take on that freaking scared tone he used when he knew Eliot would be pissed with him. "What?!" Eliot growled back.

"Umm, man it looks like all the security cameras are on the fritz - except one. They all just went offline."

"What do you mean?" Nate's worried voice came next in Eliot's head. "What happened to the cameras? Hardison?"

"Which one?" Eliot ground out. "Which camera is working?" But he already knew the answer as he looked up at the camera mounted on the wall just over his head in front of the stairwell door. It was flashing a red recording dot. "Damnit Hardison!"

"El, man - I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Eliot ignored Hardison's voice as he turned to see the group of guards approaching him from behind. These were not the same guards he'd been seeing all night. No, these guys were better suited to the same kind of work as Eliot. "Nate, get out. Leave now!" He watched as the group stopped a few feet from him. He counted six. For now. "You hear me Nate, put Parker behind the wheel and get out now!"

"Whoa! Eliot man, no way you want Parker driving us outta here!" Hardison said as fear gripped him. "Sorry mamma, but we wanna live through this!" He said as Parker stuck her tongue out at him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the back of Lucille, Hardison and the others watched as the men appeared out of nowhere and slowly made their way towards Eliot's turned back. They watched as Nate tried to warn him they were coming, but he was interrupted by Eliot's 'Damnit Hardison!' and they knew he'd already figured it out. They watched as Eliot slowly turned to face the men as he instructed them to leave; and to leave without him.

"Eliot wants me to drive? Something's wrong with him. He never lets me drive." Parker replied as she moved to get in the driver's seat. "Should I, Nate? Drive, I mean. We can't leave Sparky, but..." She didn't know for sure what she should do. She loved to drive, but Eliot hated it when she drove. If Eliot wanted her to drive, that meant something bad was about to happen.

"No!" Nate yelled at her. "No, Parker," He added more softly when she jumped at his exclamation. "We wait for Eliot." He turned back to the monitor. "Eliot we aren't leaving you; I'm coming in to get you."

"No!" This time Eliot yelled. "Get out now or I'll-" _Damnit, he thought._ How the hell did this go so wrong so quickly? "Nate, this is what I do. Let me do my job without worrying about you guys, please…" He replied in his more controlled voice. "I'm the hitter; the enforcer. This is my real job on this team, so let me do my job." Eliot paused as the six men moved closer forming an arc in front of him. "Your job is the mastermind, the leader, so lead. Get the others out, Nate. I'll be fine." Eliot knew the stairs were behind him now, and there was no telling who could be waiting there to ambush him. He knew he'd walked himself into the worst position strategically possible. "Hardison, I need you to do what you do best."

"What? What do you-" But then Hardison remembered something. One time on a job, they had no computer access and Eliot was giving him a hard time cause he couldn't do anything without his computers. Hardison had smiled and held up his phone. He'd told Eliot he always had a computer if he had his cell and that was what he did best; and with that Hardison had been able to hack into the security system of the building they'd been in. He smiled now as he realized what Eliot was saying. "You got it man." His fingers moved over the keyboard with lightning efficiency and soon he had every alarm in the building going off. Fire, security, anything with an alarm, it was going off.

Eliot smiled when the guards suddenly looked nervously at the flashing lights and alarms going off around them. Next the regular lights went off and they were all left in the dark; before the intermittent strobe lighting from the back-up system kicked in and they could see glimpses of the hall around them, but they didn't see Eliot. The group did circles in place trying to find where the hitter gone.

They didn't know what hit them until they were down. Eliot had moved quietly and quickly through the group and he'd taken all of them down in less than a minute. Eliot stood over them, grinning. _Yeah, he thought; he really did like Hardison's computers and crap._

"Eliot? We're just outside the fire door exit you were heading for." Hardison said as Parker started the van and moved them to wait just outside said exit.

Eliot growled when he realized they hadn't left has he'd asked them to, but he didn't hesitate as he turned and ran for the stairwell door bursting through and taking the stairs a leap at a time. He jumped from landing to landing, then he jumped over the rail of the last two flights and landed just in front of the fire door leading to the outside world. Eliot pushed on the bar and set off another alarm when he burst through heading for the van waiting at the curb.

He watched as Nate slid the door open, and just as Eliot had cleared the outside doorway, something big and dark hit him hard in the middle of his back and he went down. Nate could only watch as his friend went down; and his heart began to pound even faster when he realized his teammate was not getting up. Eliot never went down without getting right back up.

Eliot could see stars as he felt the heavy dark shape land on his back and knock the breath out of him. He'd hit his head hard on the concrete under him and he couldn't seem to get a grip on the ground. Eliot tried to roll over, but whoever had him down was covering his entire back side. He was too stunned to try and see who was on top of him.

He vaguely heard Nate yelling his name, but it was from so far away. He wasn't sure, but he thought he also heard Sophie's sweet voice calling out to him, but it was too far away, yet he could sense she sounded frightened and that bothered him. _What was she scared about?_

As Eliot felt himself floating he could have sworn he felt a cold wet something stroking his neck. _What the hell?_ He tried to move his head away from the wet thing, but he stopped instantly when he heard his father's voice. The one he used when he'd yell at their hunting dog, Jake. Then the cold wet thing went for his face and he couldn't seem to stop the thing from closing in on his throat.

Eliot was falling into a big black pit and he just sighed as he thought of his old coonhound, Jake and his big stupid loopy grin as he licked the crap out of Eliot's face. Stupid dog was always so friggin' happy to see him and Eliot had loved that dog more than anything. Then he remembered nothing as the world shifted on its axis to send him falling off and into nothing.

AN: Hope you like this new one. It began as a Leverage Secret Santa Exchange on AO3 for Ginipig9. I'm expanding it from 3 chapters there to not sure yet exactly how many here. Please read, enjoy and review if you do!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 _I Feel My Eyes Rollin' Deep Inside My Head_

 _And There's A Feeling of Misconception in The Air_

 _Yeah, I'm Startin' To See_

 _Yeah, I Do Believe_

"This is ridiculous, Nate!" Hardison whined as he grabbed the mastermind's attention away from his third whiskey in the last hour. "I won't do it!"

Nate hated to admit that Hardison was right; this was ridiculous. He hated even more admitting that he was probably wrong in his course of action on how they were handling this situation right now, but then again what did Hardison expect him to do? They had no choice, really. They had to do this, for Eliot.

It had been five weeks; five long drawn out weeks since their resident hitter had been taken down by an over protective Doberman. The same dog Eliot had made friends with when he'd first went in as a security guard at the law building where they'd stolen back the documents for their then client, Dr. Evanwood.

Nate could laugh about the whole scene now, but at the time it had been a very tense moment. When he and the others had taken in the sight of Eliot running out the emergency exit and heading for them and the safety of Lucille, they'd just been glad he'd made it out. Then that feeling of relief had turned to horror as they watched the five security dogs come running from the back corner of the building and head directly for Eliot. No one had heard them approaching until it was too late.

It had been one unusually large dog that had taken Eliot down first with one strong leap at the hitter's back, and Nate could do nothing as he watched his young friend go down; hard. He could tell that Eliot had hit his head on the concrete walkway from the force of the impact. Nate didn't know what to do when two more dogs bypassed Eliot and ran straight for Lucille. He'd been forced to pull the side door closed to avoid them jumping in and attacking them.

But what was worse was watching the other two dogs standing over Eliot's prone figure and growling at the fifth dog, the one Eliot had befriended, as the dog quickly jumped on Eliot's back and turned to growl at the incoming threat the two dogs promised. It all happened in the blink of an eye, Nate remembered now, but at the time it felt like he was stuck in slow motion. Everything was playing out like a scene from a movie.

No one noticed Parker when she made sure the van was in park before she climbed out the open window of the driver's side door and crawled across the top of Lucille until she was directly over the two dogs barking outside the side door of the van. They were jumping and scratching at the door looking for a way inside. Hardison and Sophie were still in shock from watching Eliot go down, but they'd both managed to move into the front passenger seat to try and get a look at what was going on outside. The two were crowded on the one seat, but neither moved away from the other.

Nate turned to watch the computer monitors on the driver's side in back of the van where all Hardison's equipment was set up for this job. He took in the scene playing just outside the van from the camera mounted just over the emergency exit door. The cameras had all been on the fritz when Eliot had been inside, but now this camera was beginning to clear up and work again. Nate could see Eliot was still down, but now the two dogs that had been preparing to attack him were running from the scene with their tails between their legs; figuratively speaking he thought, with a shocked look at the entire scene. Even more surprising was the third dog that had chased them away, was now trying desperately to wake up the downed man by licking at his face and neck. Nate could even hear the dog as it whimpered and nudged at Eliot trying to wake him up.

But what surprised him the most was the fact that Parker was on top of Lucille peering down at the remaining two dogs as they continued to scratch and bark outside the door his back was now facing. They would move between the side door and the passenger door where they could see Sophie and Hardison watching them. Nate watched the monitor while Sophie and Hardison watched from their front row seat as the two dogs were clueless to the blonde threat about to make her move.

Parker quietly performed a perfect somersault over the roof of the van to land three feet behind the dogs and ended up facing the dogs and Lucille. The dogs turned their attention to the young nimble thief and quickly headed for her; but Parker knew what she was doing, and she was ready. She pulled the twin tazers from behind her back and just as the dogs were close enough, she reached out and just waited for them.

It was with equal parts horror, shock and total surprise that the three team members trapped inside the van watched as each dog met the electrical current from each tazer. The dogs never even made a sound as both fell to the ground to twitch slightly from the shock to their small systems.

Hardison was the first to recover as he threw open the door and climbed over Sophie to rush over and gather the young woman in his arms. "Are you crazy mamma? Those dogs could have torn you to pieces!" Even though his voice sounded like he was scolding her, Parker knew it was just his way of downplaying his fear.

"I'm fine, Hardison. Not a scratch, see?" She pulled away to do a simple twirl before reaching out and grabbing his hand to pull him with her as she ran over to Eliot. "We have to get him in the van before whoever let those dogs out finds us or before those two dogs recover."

Nate snapped out of his stupor next to pull the side door open and jump out to join them. Sophie slowly climbed out to step over to the two downed dogs. "Nate? Will the dogs be okay?"

Hardison heard her question but didn't hear if Nate answered her or not as he and Parker slowed their approach to Eliot. The fifth dog that still sat on the back of their teammate began growling at them. "Right now, Sophie I don't think I'd be worried about whether those dogs are all right or not, even though I'm sure they will be. We got a bigger problem here, Nate."

Nate side-stepped the twitching dogs that were already trying to get to their feet and he grabbed Sophie's hand as they too hurried over to Parker and Hardison. They pulled up short next to them as they watched the fifth dog baring its teeth at them. This animal was not going to let them at Eliot.

"I can see the problem." Nate replied as they all took a collective step back from the scene.

"Nate, we can't leave Eliot and we can't get the dog away from him either." Sophie said as she clung to the man's arm.

"I can taze this dog too; won't be hard to do. I only gave the other two a small jolt." Parker said. "But, I kind of hate to do that since this dog is just protecting Eliot." She paused as she moved one step to her left and watched as the dog turned its attention to follow her movement. "Guard dogs are usually simple; they do things for two reasons." She stated while moving back to Hardison's side and taking in the way the dog continued to follow her movements.

Hardison looked at her with surprise on his face. "What do you know about dogs? You don't like horses which granted are ten times bigger; but dogs you get?"

Parker smirked at the man. "Dogs are often used as security and in my business, I've had to face off with them once or twice. They aren't really scary if you understand why they're doing their jobs."

"And what exactly are the reasons this dog is not letting us near Eliot?" Nate asked, but he had a feeling he knew what the thief was getting at. "I mean, I understand dogs being trained to cause harm to bad guys when their job is security, but what the hell is this dog's reason for not letting Eliot go? The dog's got to know we only want to help him."

Parker slowly smiled at that. "It's simple Nate; like I said, dogs do this for two reasons: one - they are trained to do this kind of work for the rewards of food, care and shelter in exchange for their obedience. They bond with their trainer because he keeps them protected so they want to please that trainer; and two - they do this because they have an inbred trait for being aggressive or protective."

Sophie shook her head. "Parker, we don't have time to perform a psych exam on this dog. Why is this dog protecting Eliot when he's not the trainer?"

"In my experience, most dogs in security work are males mainly due to their size. Males of certain breeds are normally bigger dogs. I've learned that females aren't always used as much because, and again just in my experience, if they haven't been fixed yet, they tend to roam when they're in heat searching for a male and they tend to be a distraction to male dogs who sense them in heat. If females and males are used it's best to have them both fixed to avoid this, but it isn't always going to help. Some males will still be distracted, so most companies usually just deal with only males or only females."

"What the hell are you saying Parker?" Hardison asked frustrated with the whole conversation.

"I'm saying that most security dogs are one or the other, not both. That helps to avoid any distractions during training and later when they need to do their jobs. It's just easier."

Nate broke out in laughter then and Hardison and Sophie turned to look at him as if he'd sprouted a second head. "That's good, Parker; I think I get what you're trying to say and I'm guessing this dog isn't your normal security dog." Parker smiled at the man for getting what she was saying and moved to pull her jacket off and hold it out in front of her.

"Well, I must be dense, 'cause I'm not getting what's going on here at all. Sophie, you gettin' any of this?" Hardison asked the grifter who shook her head in the negative. "Parker what are you doing?" He asked, taking in the young woman's movements.

They watched as Parker slowly approached the dog who was now lying on the back of Eliot and watching them as they talked. As Parker slowly approached, the dog remained still, but perked up its ears and tilted it's head to watch as the woman carefully held her jacket out for the dog to sniff.

Parker knew that Eliot's smell would be on her jacket since he'd helped her climb into the elevator shaft when she'd made her exit from the building. Eliot's scent should be all over it and so she knew the dog would smell him and accept that she was a part of Eliot; in a way. "When Eliot helped me climb down the elevator shaft, his scent transferred to my jacket. The dog should smell him and know I'm okay."

The dog sniffed and then whined when she slowly reached out to pet the dog on the head. The dog didn't fight the woman when she took hold of its collar and gently but firmly pulled it from Eliot's back so that Nate and Hardison could move in and gather the unconscious man up and haul him back to the van.

"Good job Parker, now let's get out of here." Nate said as they carefully placed Eliot inside the back of the van.

Nate raised his eyebrow slightly when he watched Parker and the dog both jump in to sit next to Eliot. "What are you doing with the dog?"

Parker looked at Nate. "The dog's coming, too. She needs to finish her job of protecting Eliot and she'll only be punished for letting us escape. Besides, Eliot would have been coming back for her later anyway." She replied, matter of fact.

Hardison paused in his climb into the driver's seat and turned to look at the woman in the back of the van. "She?" He asked slightly surprised that the dog was female after Parker had just informed them most guard dogs were either or; not both.

"Yep. That's why this dog is different; she's a girl. She's the only female of the five sent after us." She paused to resettle herself, so she could continue to pet the dog. "Some females have the mothering instinct to protect and while that can be a good trait in dogs in general, it can lead to problems in guard dogs if the dog begins questioning who and what to protect." She explained as best she could. "Didn't you guys hear Eliot talking to the dogs when he first came on duty as a guard? When the first guard told Eliot, he needed to be presented to the dogs, so they'd know who he was?" Didn't these people listen at all, she wondered.

"Well, to be honest, I kinda tuned it out; I was more worried about you gettin' in the building and then back out. I didn't really listen since he wasn't havin' any problems. It just seemed like a normal thing in being a guard, and I trust Eliot to let us know if something isn't normal. He didn't seem bothered by it, so I wasn't." Hardison replied, looking and Nate then Sophie. They nodded their heads in agreement with him.

Parker laughed as she looked at her three team mates. "Eliot likes animals, so he talks to them and if they don't have a name, he names them." When the others still looked confused, she continued, "He talked to the dogs to see what he'd have to expect in case they were used in our escape. I listened as he talked to this dog the most. He knew she was a she and he knew she didn't want to be here, so they must have bonded, you know. Eliot isn't really all that hard to get if you guys would just listen to the man once in a while. I mean really listen."

Nate stared at Parker. She was right, Eliot did give away clues if you just watched and listened to him. It wasn't always in what he said or did; sometimes it was in what he didn't say or didn't do.

Nate realized he needed to listen more; not just to Eliot, but to Parker, as well. He usually did, but lately things had been so hectic and crazy, and he'd just begun handling jobs like they were just jobs. He knew he'd been putting a lot of things aside just to get the job done.

"You're right, Parker." He said quietly as he reached out a hand and ran it over the back of Eliot's head in search of any wounds not noticeable. Sophie had joined them in the back but was staying away from the dog that had taken up residence next to Eliot's right side, so she could keep a careful eye on what Nate was doing. She seemed to approve of his handling of the man, because she carefully laid her head down on Eliot's chest and allowed the man to wipe at the blood now drying from the cut on his forehead where he'd met the concrete.

"So, you're saying Parker, that because this dog met Eliot and he talked to her, that she bonded with him and therefore when she saw him being attacked she took his side?" Sophie asked with amazement in her voice. "That seems to be a bit far-fetched, don't you think?"

Parker just stared at the grifter in exasperation. "Everyone is always telling me that there's something wrong with me and I don't get what that means. I see things for what they are. I'm not looking at things like you or Nate or even Hardison do. I see what's really there; and it's simple." She paused as she tried to find the right words for her explanation. "This dog is just doing what comes natural, for her. She bonded with Eliot, because Eliot is good with animals and she could sense that. You know how the horses took to Eliot on Kentucky Thunder's job. And you know that Eliot is also good with women."

Sophie choked on that response. "How would I know that?" She squeaked out.

Nate laughed at the woman's shock. "She means we all know that Eliot has a soft spot for women in general. Not to mention children and animals, as well. Eliot bonded with the dog mostly because he knew she would be the easiest for him to bond with because she's a female; and most females do pay attention to Eliot."

Hardison finally got the van in gear and pulled away from the curb to head back to the Nate's loft. "I can except that explanation. Makes sense, but I'm still curious Parker. Since none of us heard him talking with her and you said that Eliot tends to name animals, what name did Eliot give this dog?"

Parker smiled slowly as she watched the dog laying there on Eliot and keeping her eyes on Nate. She reached out to gently stroke the dog's head, who then turned to give the thief a rumble of pleasure in her throat at her touch. "He was quiet about it, he may have been too quiet for you to hear, but I heard." She paused as she helped Nate to apply gentle pressure to the still slowly oozing head wound. "He said he could see it in her eyes. He could tell she was stuck in that place and that she didn't want to be there. Eliot talked with her about getting her out as soon as he could; he told her he'd be back for her; and he called her Aimee."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

 _I Used to Have A Soft Southern Glowing Face_

 _I Used to Leave My Heartaches with The Chase_

 _When You Get Stung with The Heart of a Little Child_

 _Well, That's How You Get That Rattlesnake Smile_

"Hardison's right, Nate. You can't let Eliot take the lead on this job. These roles he's assigned us are crazy." Sophie replied from her seat next to the man at the dining table. She knew he'd been thinking back to when their hitter had been injured and she wanted him to come back from that. He needed to focus on now.

Hardison reached down to scratch behind Aimee's ears as she lay next to the man's feet where he sat at his computer table. The dog had been Eliot's constant companion when he'd been recuperating for the first few days, but now the dog seemed to have become permanently attached to Hardison's side whenever Eliot wasn't around, like right now.

Nate smiled at the gesture, because he knew Hardison didn't even realize he was doing it. He'd been very vocal about not liking the dog or any dog for that matter, and while the dog did spend most of her time with Eliot, she'd slowly been crawling next to the hacker's feet whenever he was sitting at his computers. Nate figured it was because the dog had found a fondness for the same gummy frogs that Hardison loved and since he'd decided he was going to start watching his teammates a lot closer, he'd seen Hardison sneak the dog some every chance he got.

If Eliot knew that Aimee was getting her increased energy from the candy, he would go off on the young man. Or at least the old Eliot would have, Nate thought with a heavy sigh. He had no idea what the current Eliot would do.

Since the accident their hitter hadn't been himself. Well, he was himself as far as he knew, he just wasn't the Eliot they'd once known. Nate still remembered the shock he'd felt when the man had finally come around later that evening; when they'd gotten back to Nate's loft and settled Eliot on the sofa.

When he'd woken and seen all of them gathered around him, Eliot had responded with a very loud curse at their invading his personal space. Then Nate had seen it in the man's eyes. He didn't seem to recognize them. He'd looked at each of them in turn, but he'd just blinked in confusion. Then when the words had come from him, Nate felt his heart hit rock bottom. Eliot had calmly asked who they were and then he'd asked them who he was; and Nate could see it in Eliot's eyes, he didn't know any of them.

He also didn't seem to recognize anything around him. Not them, the loft or any of his surroundings, not even Aimee. He didn't remember who he was or what he did. At first, they had all been terrified and they'd been at a loss on how to handle it.

Over the following week, Hardison had done research on amnesia and Cora, who owned McRory's bar under Nate's loft, had contacted a friend who was a trauma nurse. Marty, as Cora called her, was a middle-aged solidly built woman and she had come over when Cora had called her. She'd helped them to understand what they needed to expect from Eliot and what they needed to do to help him. At least she'd tried; but it was still hard on all of them to try and forget the Eliot they knew and focus on this new Eliot.

Mostly they just needed to take one day at a time and not be frustrated with him for not remembering things. No one could predict when or even if Eliot would get is memory back. Nate had slowly learned as he'd watched the man over the last few weeks that maybe Eliot's not remembering who he once had been may be a blessing in disguise. If he didn't remember being Eliot Spencer, then he didn't have to remember the things he'd done in his past. It was kind of a clean slate for him.

But then Nate had realized that when had things ever been easy for Eliot? He'd watched as at first there were small instances like when Eliot picked up a knife in the kitchen and preceded to slice vegetables for their dinner like he did it every day. Which normally he had, but it was surprising even to Eliot himself when he produced a gourmet meal and he hadn't even given it a single thought.

It was the same with Eliot's reflexes. One night, Hardison had surprised the man when he'd been standing at the window off the kitchen staring blankly out into the dark night. Eliot hadn't heard Hardison approaching at first, but when he'd lightly touched Eliot's shoulder, well it had been kind of funny to see the look on Hardison's face when Eliot tuned so fast and so quick that Hardison didn't have time to take in a breath before he was being flipped through the air to land on his back with the hitter quickly following him down to straddle him and clamp one firm hand around his throat.

It was Parker who had gotten through Eliot's fog and had slowly gotten him to let Hardison go before he turned blue from lack of oxygen. It had been a tense moment and Nate knew that Hardison's fear of the attack had been nothing in comparison to Eliot's. The man had grabbed his truck keys from the table by the door and slammed out of the building after that. It had been six hours before Hardison had been able to track where Eliot had finally stopped.

He'd driven everywhere they learned from following Hardison's GPS mapping; from the moment Eliot had left the building until they'd found him sitting in his truck in the parking lot of the law building where they'd first lost their hitter, Eliot had been all over the city. Eliot couldn't explain why he'd ended up at the law building, he couldn't even remember what had happened there, but he'd just felt drawn there for some reason.

Sophie had rationalized it as a sign that he may be triggering his own memories by letting his subconscious lead him. Nate kind of understood that; so, when they'd discussed the incident with Marty, she had agreed with Sophie and she'd suggested letting Eliot have the lead on things; on himself. She meant that they should just treat him like they would treat him any other day. By doing this they could let Eliot's subconscious take over. It had slowly been trying to come out in his cooking and his reflexes and his ending up at the last place he probably remembered deep down, so Marty felt it was very important to let Eliot guide them; all they needed to do was be patient and hopefully he would begin to trigger his own memories within his actions.

And so, they'd been doing that for the last couple of weeks and it was because of that. that Nate had allowed Eliot to take the lead on this new case they had taken. Originally, they were supposed to have started this case right after Dr. Evanwood's case had been completed, but Nate had pushed it back due to Eliot's injury. But now he had to agree with both Sophie and Hardison; this was ridiculous.

Their job was to go undercover at a local high school. Their client, Ellen Marlowe, had asked them to find out what had happened to her daughter, Mandy. The girl was sixteen and she was now in the hospital in a coma with a very grim outlook of ever waking up. She had been injured in what was called an accident at the school, but Ellen believed the school was covering something up.

The school said that Mandy had fallen down some stairs during a mad rush by the students during a fire alarm. No one had even questioned that, not the doctors nor the police who hadn't even investigated the accident fully. The school, Madison High was in the small community of Newberry, Pa not far from Lancaster and was big in the sport of High School football. The school had a near perfect record.

Mandy had been a popular student and a cheerleader. She was a year ahead of most of the students and so she was a senior at sixteen. She was already planning on becoming a forensic anthropologist and Kathy Reichs was her idol. The girl had been scary smart as Parker put it and Ellen had smiled at that reference. It was true she said, sometimes it was scary to the other students just how smart her daughter was.

Nate had set Hardison to work on research of the school and their possible aliases only to change his mind later after the discussion with Marty about letting Eliot lead them a bit. He decided that maybe this would be the perfect case for him as Eliot responded to concerns about kids, especially if they were being tormented or abused. Maybe they'd find something along those lines and that in turn may force their hitter to remember who he was.

And it was that decision that had led him to facing off against both Sophie and Hardison's reluctance to proceed with Eliot's suggestions on this case. He could understand that as he too wasn't happy with the aliases Eliot had assigned each of them.

Hardison had put together the aliases and background files for each of them, but that was before Eliot's injury, so while the roles had stayed the same, the assignment of who would play what part had changed, and that was the problem.

"Look, I can understand both you and Hardison on this, but you know what Marty said and that's all I'm trying to do here. Let Eliot lead and hopefully something will click in his subconscious that will bring his memory back." Nate said as he downed the last of his third drink. He thought about pouring a fourth, but knew he'd get _the look_ from Sophie if he did.

"That's easy for you to say. Your part ain't that bad." Hardison replied. "You got it kind of easy."

"What? You're a coach too." Nate tried his best not to grin when he spoke. "It's all about the sports at this school and you're heading the best team in the state." He finally gave into the smile that broke out as he spoke.

"That ain't funny, Nate!" Hardison bellowed at the mastermind. "While I understand the need to let Eliot remember what he needs to remember, this is really really ridiculous! Why do I have to coach the girl's cheerleading squad? Do I look like I know how to train a cheerleader?"

Parker dropped down from the second story balcony from where she'd been hanging upside down while listening to the three of them. She wasn't thrilled with her part, but she could work with it. "Eliot's trying to remember Hardison, it's just hard right now." She walked over to the cabinet and pulled down her stash of fortune cookies and headed for the table to sit and dig into the jar.

"Parker, are you saying you aren't bothered by your part?" Sophie asked as she reached out and grabbed the jar from the thief and instead handed her an apple from the basket of fruit sitting in the middle of the table. "I'd have thought you'd be the most upset." She walked back to the cabinet and replaced the jar.

Parker pouted at losing her cookies, but bit into the apple anyway. Between mouthfuls, she replied. "What's not to like? It's all about food, right? All I got to do is teach kids to eat and that's easy."

Sophie sighed as she returned to the table and handed Parker three of the wrapped cookies as a concession to not getting to eat the whole jar. "There's a little more to it than just that Parker. You can't just teach them about cereal and fortune cookies. You're the home economics teacher and that means you have to teach them more than just to eat."

Parker smiled like a child as she accepted the treats, but then frowned at the Sophie's words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you have to know how to shop for food for a family, sometimes a large family. And you must know how to cook food like Eliot does or at least the basics of what Eliot does. You also need to know some tips and tricks like how to get stains out of the carpet when your child spills grape juice on it. And then there's knowing how to make a budget and how to use coupons, and well, just a lot of things that most normal people do. Things that we don't do because none of us are that kind of normal."

Parker's frown deepened. "I don't know any of that. If I want food I buy it; I don't drink grape juice or know how to clean it and there is no way I would cook food like Eliot's. To begin with he makes stuff I've never heard of and then for another I don't get why it's such a big deal to cook when you can get stuff already made."

Hardison laughed at that. "Not everyone considers dry cereal as a food that is already made, mamma." He sobered up when Parker threw him a dirty look. "But they really should. They don't know what they're missing out on." He quickly amended.

It was Nate's turn to laugh now. "Look who's angling to be the teacher's pet." He remarked evenly. "At least Parker and Sophie get to be inside the air-conditioned school. Even you get to be inside most of the time, while I have to be outside in the blistering sun."

"Well, you are the one who told Eliot you needed to get closer to Mandy's boyfriend and he just happens to be on the football team. So what better way to get close than coaching the team? Umm Nate?" Hardison mocked. "At least you get to be with guys doing guy things, while I have to coach a bunch of griping whiny mean girls on the fine elements of whether doing a somersault or a cartwheel is more appropriate at that precise moment the team scores a touchdown."

Sophie laughed. "I'll trade you. At least you get to do nothing but stand there and watch and occasionally throw out something that they won't even hear anyway. I have it worse than any of you guys."

Nate looked at the woman in surprise. "How in the world can your job be harder than Hardison being the cheerleader coach, or Parker being the Home Ec teacher or my being the football coach? You got it easy. You only have to sit at a desk all day."

"Sit at a desk? All day? Do you even realize how hard that is? I not only have to sit at said desk, but I must answer the phone and write stuff in some appointment book and then I must take notes and plan out which department gets which portions of the budget. And don't even get me started on the computer. Hardison's thing is computers, not mine. I barely know how to turn one on!" Sophie whined.

"You don't even know how to do that." Nate mumbled under his breath hoping the woman didn't hear him.

"I heard that Nathan Ford!" Sophie reached out and slapped the man across the back of his head. "Just for that, I'm cutting the football team's budget!"

"Wait! You can't do that. The team is going to state, and they need that money to travel as well as buy new equipment for next season!"

"Yeah, well you should have thought about that before you insulted me."

"Look Sophie. You actually got the best job. You are good at distributing money and you may not know all the departments and what their benefits are, but you know how to read people, so you can tell how some are more passionate about their departments. Just think of it as you're able to buy several different pairs of shoes by hitting the right sales and you know how to do that easily." Eliot said from the doorway.

No one had heard the man enter the room and they all gasped at him surprising them. He smiled then moved to close the door behind him as he walked into the room. He laid his keys on the kitchen bar and headed to the refrigerator to pull out a beer.

"How long have you been standing there?" Nate asked surprised that he hadn't heard the man sneak in.

"A while." He smiled as he took a long pull from the bottle. "Long enough to hear you all hate the roles you've been given and feel you'd be better at something else."

Parker narrowed her eyes at the hitter. "You gave us these roles."

"Yes, I did Parker." He took another long drink from the bottle.

"Eliot?" Nate asked watching the man drink half his beer in two long gulps. In the last few weeks none of them had even seen Eliot touch a beer, let alone drink one. In fact, aside from the mystery dinner that one time, and the way he'd thrown down Hardison no one had seen Eliot do anything even remotely like he'd done before he'd lost his memory.

"Yes, Nate?" Eliot raised his eyes from looking at the bottle in his hands to meet the team leader's.

Nate now narrowed his eyes as he saw there in Eliot's sparkling blue eyes the laughter the man was trying desperately to keep under control. "You never told us what part you picked for yourself." Nate saw it then when Eliot turned to look at the others. "I'm the new football coach, Hardison's the cheerleading coach, Parker's the Home Economics instructor, and Sophie's the substitute assistant principal. These are all roles you could probably pull off, but not us. I mean maybe me or Hardison could do Sophie's job, but not like you could. You know kids and you know regular high school life or at least you did. You know we're all out of our comfort zone with these aliases." He picked his words carefully here. "But you knew that already, didn't you?" He paused as he let his words sink in.

Eliot looked back at Nate and let his eyes speak for him. He slowly smiled as he watched the realization hit everyone in the room.

Parker was the first to respond to what Nate was saying. "Damn it Sparky!"

"Eliot Spencer you remember who you are don't you?" Sophie asked moving in her chair to focus on the man better. "And I'm guessing you knew when you assigned these roles to us."

"Wait - what?" Hardison asked as it finally hit him too. "You mean to tell me, that you assigned us these roles on purpose? Why? Cause you wanted to see if we'd do them? Or are you torturing us?"

Eliot broke out laughing as Aimee moved from her place by Hardison to head over to Eliot. She liked hearing Eliot laugh and he hadn't done it that much until lately. He reached down to pet the dog on her head. "I don't remember everything, just bits and pieces; but things are starting to fall into place."

"Eliot? You didn't answer my question. What role did you assign yourself?" Nate asked again as he settled back in his chair. Right now, he wanted to see just how far the man had taken this little joke. Later he, as well as the others would let the man have it for their torment, but until then he was curious to know which role Eliot would be playing.

"Well, after watching all of you these past weeks I've learned just how much Sophie loves the stage and how much Hardison loves his geeky sci-fi fandoms. As well as watching how Parker loves the thrill of jumping off a building or how you Nate love the way a plan comes together. I've watched all of you excel at the things you love to do, and I realized that all those things are all mostly the manifestation of your inner child wanting to come out and be heard. It's been kind of eye opening watching how Sophie's eyes light up at Macbeth; or how Hardison's face beams when someone mentions the Tardis. I've seen how Parker's moods improve when she figures out something we take for granted as well as how your mood improves just by watching Sophie enter the room." Eliot paused at this to let his mood soften. "I've watched how you all have put up with a dog that you'd never admit to wanting simply because that dog was protecting me and by extension I've watched how that same dog as taken to protecting all of you as well. I've watched how each one of you has changed your routines to accommodate my memory loss; and well I think that's what triggered my memories the most. Seeing how you have all treated me has brought things back in bits and pieces. It started as feelings of Deja vu mostly, but over the last few days it's been flooding back more and more." He watched as all his friends listened to everything he was saying. "Just like you're doing right now. You're listening to me. Everything I'm saying, you're listening to me even if you don't like what it means for you; and I think the biggest thing that has helped me is the fact that each of you has shown you have faith I'll get better by letting me just do things without really thinking about what the old me would have done."

Nate reached over and poured himself another drink. What the hell, he thought as he ignored Sophie's frown. "So," he began as he settled back in his chair. "You took on the role of the drama teacher, didn't you?"

Sophie gasped with shock as the others all laughed. "No way Eliot! You can't do that!"

"Why not, Sophie? I don't think it's that hard to pretend to be something I'm not. I did - do it every day. We all do." Eliot replied quietly as he grinned over the mouth of his beer bottle.

Parker picked up one of her fortune cookies and ripped into the package and popped the cookie open to pull out the fortune within. She read it then laughed as she handed it to Sophie. Sophie laughed too as she read it out loud. "One must only remain true to oneself for the meaning of life to be revealed."

Sophie reached for one of the cookies and ripped it open to break out that fortune. She read it then passed it to Nate who took it and read it out loud. "If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten."

"Your turn Eliot." Parker said as she tossed him the final cookie.

Eliot caught it easily and carefully opened the package and popped open the cookie to pull out the small piece of paper enclosed inside. He read it quietly then carefully folded the paper and shoved it into his jeans pocket.

"What's it say Sparky?"

Eliot smiled. "Pick another cookie."

"It didn't say that, Eliot." Parker said.

"Yes, it did."

"Let me see it, El." Hardison asked walking over to stand next to the man.

Eliot thought about saying no, but then gave in. He pulled the paper out and handed it to Hardison. The man read it to himself and then looked up at Eliot.

"What's it say Hardson?" Parker asked.

Hardison handed the paper back to Eliot who reached over and threw it in the trashcan. "It says pick another cookie."

"For real?"

"For real, mamma." Hardison moved back to his computers. "Now maybe we should go over this job again since we are all about to perform outside our own respective boxes so to speak."

Everyone got up to join the man in the living room facing all the monitors. It was Sophie who quietly moved over to the trashcan and pulled out the discarded fortune and read it. She smiled slowly as she returned it to the trash.

 _The greatest pleasure in your life is doing what your family believes you can do._

AN: End of Part I - stay tuned for Part II. Sorry it has taken so long to update, went through a bit of writer's block and depression on how to proceed with another story and this one got set aside until then.

AN #2: I do plan on updating this, but it will be awhile. I've got like 15 irons in the fire right now and unfortunately, this story is one of the last things on my list! But I will be back! Hang in there with me!


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